Keeping Faithful
by Velasa
Summary: aka 'Wrex catsits'. Post ME1- Shepard had a cat, and after her death over Alchera Wrex turns out to be the only one who can watch the little bugger.


Keeping Faithful

by Velasa

* * *

This came from another prompt on the ME Kmeme on LJ-

_fShepard had a pet cat. After she died, one of the ME1 squadmembers ended up adopting it._

_After ME2, the kitty and owner are reunited._

_(Any ME1 character can be used - though I'll admit, specifically the image of Wrex taking a cat with him back to Tuchanka and looking after it for two years makes me smile...)_

So thus, fanfic was born! Enjoy the cuteness.

* * *

Wrex was never entirely sure how the hell it had happened that he'd agreed to this.

He'd been drunk, he remembered that. The funeral had been miserable and Vakarian had been a complete wreck so they had taken off for Chora's Den to get hammered. Probably a bad idea, not that he really cared. The kid had been choking on his lovesick grief so tearing the place apart and breaking some heads was just what he needed to get his head back on his shoulders. Hell, it wasn't like he had planned on going back to that bar anyway.

What he was more concerned about was why Liara was shoving a crate at him. A crate with angry tiny eyes peering out of the darkness.

"Wrex, you agreed! You said you would take care of him!"

"I did?"

"Yes, last night when you crashed on my couch! Wrex, no one else can- Shepard didn't have any family, Illium and the Flotilla don't allow offworld animals, Alenko is allergic and Garrus isn't in a state to look after_ himself _let alone anyone else. If you don't take him in the Alliance will ship him off to a shelter and they'll probably end up killing him-" Aaaand there went the waterworks, as if there hadn't been enough crying already.

So somehow he found himself on the transport back to Tuchanka with a datapad full of instructions and a carrier with a very angry small animal inside. Cats, apparently, were black lumps of fur with violet black eyes that liked to snarl and glare death at you. He prodded in a finger to poke at the thing and it took a swipe at him. Bold little bastard. He glanced at the datapad again. Didn't look nearly as evil when Shepard was holding it.

"Well you've got a quad for something I could swallow without stopping to chew."

Faithful responded by snarling at him in a registrar that made the volus on his left jump about three feet. Wrex grinned. Looks like even from her grave, Shepard was getting him into trouble.

This was going to be interesting, if nothing else.

* * *

"Where the _hell _are you animal?" Wrex was bellowing as he tore the room apart- it wasn't that damn big of a room but the little black mammal always seemed to be able to disappear into the shadows. It had been in here ten damn minutes ago when he'd shut it in-

"Mrow."

Wrex stopped. Turned to the door.

"Mroooow."

Of course the little bastard had gotten out again. He pushed the door open and the animal trotted back in with a satisfied look on it's face like it owned the place and rubbed itself against his greaves. The cat seemed to have taken a liking to him once it had gotten out of the crate and been able to settle in. By the info in the datapad it seemed like the only reason Shepard hadn't smuggled the animal on the Normandy once it was hers was that ships made it go crazy.

"You know, I only shut you in so the varren wouldn't eat you. It's not like I don't let you out any other damn time, just not when they're feeding the pack."

Faithful purred, half closing his eyes,

"I don't really care if you get eaten furball, but when Liara found out she'd skin me."

The cat hunched down, wriggled its butt and shot up like a pyjak to grab his chestplate and claw its way up through the segments of his armor to settle on the mass of his shoulder, warm back against his hump. The first time it had done that had startled the shit out of him but he was used to it by now. The purring fell into a smooth rhythm to signify that the little bugger had gone to sleep and Wrex settled in for the next hour to clean his guns with a furry passenger.

* * *

"Mrow"

Wrex blinked up from the debate he'd been having with himself over his assault rifle. He should have probably just given it up and gotten one of the newer models that didn't need to cool down but Shepard had bought him it and he _liked _this damn thing. The distraction was well welcomed. "What?"

Faithful looked godawful pleased with himself, tail held like a battle flag. "Mrooooooow."

"Cats need translators, it would make my life easier." Faithful took a few jaunty steps away, watching him and waiting for him to follow. Why the hell not? Wrex flipped the HMWA onto his back and pushed off his chunk of concrete to followed the furry thing as it twined through the rubble.

"Well what do we have here..." he peered down at the small striped corpse the cat was pulling out of its hiding spot, giving him a feline grin before chewing on it. "Baby pyjaks, not bad. Was wondering how you were getting fat." The old krogan reached down and roughly rubbed the top of the cat's head and was rewarded with a throaty purr from a bloodstained muzzle.

The block he was living in was swiftly depopulated of pyjaks within a month of Faithful realizing they were delicious. Little beast was finally earning his keep.

* * *

Faithful, apparently, loved varren. He would sniff around their pens and roll around in shreds of their shed skin and tried to follow them around whenever he ran across ones who were out. But something about the foreign smell of cat scared the living_ daylights_ out of almost every varren in the camp and they would run yelping over anyone stupid enough to get in their way when the little black fuzzball would appear.

Almost every varren, except Urz. Urz _loved _the little mammal and the two of them would go hunting pyjaks, stealing unattended food and sleeping in sunbeams together like they were littermates. It all suited Wrex just fine- he was damn busy leading Urdnot and negotiating with rival clans and the female camp. He didn't mind the little creature interrupting occasionally though- it was unobtrusive and could hop onto his dais and curl up on his shoulder without disrupting anything. Emissaries from the other clans would occasionally look at him oddly if they came for his audience at those times, but Wrex could give less of a damn what they thought about it if they were willing to keep to his terms on the important shit.

Urdnot was doing well for itself, compared to what he had been worried would happen with this whole idea. Shepard had been the one that encouraged him to go back to his people, and the least he could do for her was to watch the little fuzzball in her stead. He was getting to like the creature.

* * *

He had his suspicions when he heard the description of the ship that was landing, but with Uvek breathing down his neck with complaints he really didn't have the chance to think over it much before he saw three very familiar people trying to get through his guards to see him. Granted, one of them looked like he'd gotten into a fistfight with a thresher maw and another one of them was suppose to be dead, but Wrex was still pleased as shit about it and shoved the annoying old idiot traditionalist out of his way to greet his friends.

Shepard, apparently, _had _been dead but was better now. Heh, leave it up to her to stride out from the Void because death was too damn inconvenient. She'd greeted him with a bear hug to rival the grip of any krogan and settled in to talk to him about what he'd been up to in the last two years like nothing had ever happened to her.

Tali was exactly the same- tiny, bubbling, wielding a huge shotgun and delightfully deadly. Vakarian on the other hand was stiff as hell, hands never leaving his rifle, attention snapping to anything that even dared to look at Shepard the wrong way or too long... Wrex couldn't help grinning. He was in the middle of a particularly entertaining story about breaking the arm off of some idiot who tried to assassinate him when-

"Mrow."

Shepard jerked up like a startled pyjak, eyes wide and staring at the cat that had just snuck its way

up the dais and was now curled around her feet. And _stammered._ "Faithful?" Her arms shot down to grab him, lifting his furry body against her chest and the cat exploded in deep purring, butting its head into her collarbone. "What- how-"

"Liara's idea. Agreed as a favor to you."

"So you've had him-" she stopped to grin down at the cat when he stuck his face under her chin, and Wrex spared a glance to Vakarian to see if the turian had decided to be jealous of the cat, the answer to which seemed to be_ just a little_- "all this time? He's so damn big now! He's been doing well here I take it?"

"Certainly seems to enjoy chasing varren and hunting pyjaks. Been handling our infestation pretty damn well but you could always shoot a few yourself for fun."

Shepard's grin split her face broadly, and she turned back down to lavish attention on the animal. After a minute or so Faithful decided that was enough squeezing and wriggled out of her arms to leap out, clamber up Wrex's armor and take the usual spot on his shoulder. She watched him curiously as he absently reached a hand up to scritch the cat's chin. "Looks like you've been getting along."

"I wasn't sure at first, but the little bastard isn't so bad."

"Mmmmmhmh." She was smiling knowingly. "So much so that you wouldn't mind keeping an eye on him for me until we get this whole mess done with?"

"I could live with that."

"Fantastic." She climbed on some of the rubble next to his impromptu chair and plucked the cat off his shoulder. "But while she's here, mom is going to take her little boy pyjak hunting. He was always the terror of the neighborhood squirrels, I'd love to see him put the fear in something bigger."

"Like you?"

Her grin lit up her whole face. "Exactly." and she started wandering off, cooing at the purring ball that was crawling up onto her shoulders, front paws perched on her head for the best view.

Tali laughed and headed right after her Commander and the cat, but when Garrus went to follow them Wrex spoke up. "Vakarian, a word."

"If it's about the scars, gunship and I don't want to talk about it." He had his mandibles pulled in tight to his face, classic turian sign of discomfort. His eyes kept flicking back to where Shepard was gaining distance from him as well.

"Just a word of advice." Wrex was utterly casual, amusement pulling in his craggy face. Garrus raised a browridge incredulously. "If you want to mate with the Commander, get the cat to like you. Females won't put up with men who don't like their pets."

The embarrassed stare and choking startled sound that came from the kid made him roar with laughter, and completely at a loss for whatever witty reply he had planned Garrus just skittered off after the two women like his ass was on fire. The two of them would do fine, it was just too much fun to make Vakarian jump.

From where Wrex was sitting on his throne, the galaxy looked like it was in good hands. Shepard was on the job, she had capable people and a good ship behind her, and he didn't doubt for a moment that she'd get whatever it was done without breaking a sweat. And he'd just have to keep the little fuzzy bugger around a little longer.

Heh, he could live with that.

le end.


End file.
